Huskers Capture Big 12 Tournament Title

San Antonio -- True freshmen Breanna Boyd and Christine Latham scored a pair of goals 50 seconds apart midway through the second half to help the No. 4 Nebraska soccer team claim its third Big 12 Tournament title in four years with a 2-1 win over No. 25 Missouri in front of 2,980 fans at the Blossom Soccer Stadium in San Antonio, Texas, on Saturday.

The Huskers, who improved to 20-1-1 with the victory, battled Missouri (14-7-1) to a scoreless tie through the first 70 minutes of action, before junior midfielder Jenny Benson sent a crossing pass from the left flank to the middle. Benson's pass was headed by senior forward Lindsay Eddleman, drawing Missouri goalkeeper Jackie Adamec toward the middle of the box.

But Eddleman's header found Boyd near the far post, where she finished it for her second goal of the tournament and just the third goal of her career.

Boyd's shot was Nebraska's 20th shot of the game. Less than a minute later, the Huskers also scored on their 21st shot, as Latham scored from almost the exact spot that Boyd had finished her goal. This time, Benson sent a pass to Isabelle Morneau who laced a cross past a diving Adamec. Latham finished for her fourth goal of the tournament and 12th of the season. It was Latham's second game-winning goal of her career.

"Both of our goals were very similar," Nebraska coach John Walker said. "We drove crosses in from the flank and we were fortunate to finish those two chances. In the first half, we got too central, so at halftime we talked about spreading the field and getting the ball wide to the flanks. We did a much better job of that in the second half. It just took us awhile to finally break them down."

Walker, who owns a 101-22-2 record in six years at Nebraska, praised Missouri for its effort.

"You have to give Missouri a lot of credit because they did a good job of staying organized, and their players fought hard for 90 minutes," Walker said. "I thought our players fought hard, too, and we did a good job of not getting too frustrated. We stayed patient until we finally got the goals."

Although Nebraska led 2-0, Missouri continued to battle, scoring its goal at 76:50 when forward Nikki Thole sent a blast from 15 yards out into the back of the net. It was Missouri's only shot of the night.

For the game, the Huskers outshot Missouri, 24-1, and outcornered the Tigers, 11-0, while Adamec recorded nine saves to keep the Tigers close.

Nebraska senior defender Sharolta Nonen, who earlier in the week was named the Big 12 Conference Player of the Year, took home tournament defensive most valuable player honors. Senior defender Isabelle Morneau joined Nonen on the all-tournament team, along with junior defender Christine Gluck. Midfielders Meghan Anderson and Jenny Benson also brought home all-tournament honors for the Huskers. Latham did not receive a spot on the all-tournament team despite scoring four goals in the tournament, including the game-winning goal in the championship match. Tournament ballots are collected from the coaches by halftime of the championship game.

Nebraska closed the Big 12 Tournament by outscoring its opposition 19-3 in three tournament games. The Huskers also pushed their single-season school record total to 101 goals in 22 games. The win also helped Nebraska improve to 9-1-1 on the season against top 25 teams.

With the victory, Nebraska earned an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament. It will be Nebraska's fourth consecutive appearance in the NCAA Tournament, and the Huskers have advanced to the Sweet 16 in the 48-team tournament in each of the past three seasons.

The Huskers will find out their seeding in the tournament on Sunday at 9 p.m. during the NCAA Tournament Selection Show. Nebraska will gather as a team in the Don Bryant Media Facility at Memorial Stadium at 8:30 p.m. to watch the selection show, and members of the media are invited to attend. The top 16 teams in the tournament will receive first-round byes, while the remaining 32 teams will play opening round games on Wednesday, Nov. 10, at home sites across the nation. The top four seeds in the tournament will receive home-field advantage throughout the tournament.

The replay of the Big 12 Tournament championship game will be shown on FOX Sports Net throughout the next several weeks. The first showing will be on FOX Sports Northwest on Wednesday, Nov. 10, at 11 p.m. central standard time. FOX Sports Midwest will have its first showing on Thursday, Nov. 11, at 3 a.m., before re-airing the game on Sunday, Nov. 14, at 3 p.m. (4 p.m. in the Kansas City area), and replaying it again on Sunday, Nov. 21, at 2 p.m. FOX Sports Rocky Mountain will broadcast the game on Thursday, Nov. 11, at 2 p.m., before replaying it on Sunday, Nov. 14, at 4 p.m. FOX Sports Arizona will carry the game on Thursday, Nov. 11, at 2 p.m. central time, while FOX Sports West 2 will broadcast the game on Saturday, Nov. 13, at 7 p.m. central time. FOX Sports New York will broadcast the game on Thursday, Nov. 11, at noon central time.